


next to me

by hedakombikru



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:05:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hedakombikru/pseuds/hedakombikru
Summary: Alex is smitten with the new neighbor. Kara has taken to teasing her relentlessly. This may or may not end in disaster.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is dumb, I don’t know what this is other than a product of my intense procrastination.
> 
> The story is AU but not super (ha) AU. It could be set before season 1, time-wise. Kara is about 24, working as Cat Grant’s assistant and not Supergirl, and Alex is around 25/26 and, in this world, finishing up her PhD. We don't know much about Maggie's backstory but I'm going to say she hasn't been promoted to detective yet at this point. There will probably be another chapter or two after this if people are interested.

“I saw the new neighbor down by the mailboxes again,” Kara tells her sister as she strides through the front door of their shared apartment and settles next to her at the kitchen island.

Alex hums in feigned disinterest, but she’s suddenly much less interested in the container of orange chicken she’s holding as her thoughts drift to the aforementioned new neighbor and those dimples that she’d only seen once in passing, yet can’t seem to stop thinking about. She barely notices when Kara slides the container from her hands and finishes off the food in about three bites.

“You should ask her out already,” Kara declares. She disappears from her seat in a gust of wind and reappears two seconds later with a box of leftover pizza from the fridge. “You’re going to scare her off if you just keep staring awkwardly at her every time you pass in the hallway,” she teases around a mouthful of pepperoni and cheese.

Alex finally snaps out of her daydream and shoots her sister a glare that lacks any heat. “Shut up. I do not.”

“Do too.”

“Stop talking with your mouth full.” Alex glances down at her empty hands and frowns. “Did you eat my chicken?”

Kara’s sheepish grin is answer enough.

Alex snags the slice of pizza that’s halfway to Kara’s mouth in retaliation, and Kara gasps.

Alex smirks at her and takes a bite.

“What are you doing home so early?” she asks a moment later, glancing at the clock on the microwave. “Doesn’t Cat usually keep you chained to your desk until seven on Fridays? It’s barely five-thirty.”

Kara huffs. “She’s not that bad.”

“Sure,” Alex scoffs. She grabs another slice of cold pizza before Kara can eat it all.

“Carter has a school science fair tonight so she left early and let me go, too,” Kara explains, and eats the last three slices before Alex can finish her one, then goes to pull a pint of Phish Food from the freezer.

“Your appetite is sickening sometimes,” Alex says as she watches her sister take a heaping spoonful of ice cream.

“You’re just jealous.” The words are barely intelligible around a mouthful of chocolate, caramel, and marshmallow.

“Disgusted is more like it,” Alex teases, pushing away from the counter.

She tosses the empty pizza box and heads to the fridge herself, spends a few seconds staring guiltily at the empty vegetable crisper, and then grabs a beer from the top shelf. It had been a long day of making absolutely no progress on her research, and she feels the need to wind down with a little more than ice cream tonight.

Kara takes her dessert to the couch and gets comfortable as Alex pries open her beer. “What should we watch tonight? Or do you want to go out?”

Alex grunts and takes a long pull from her drink. “No. Let’s stay in.”

“Okay. Comedy?”

“Whatever you want.”

Alex walks over and drops down next to Kara as Kara scrolls through the Netflix listings for something they haven’t already seen.

They’d missed out on sister night the last two Fridays, the first because Alex had a meeting with her advisor that compelled her to stay late at the lab and then last week because Cat was on a trip that left Kara with double the workload. Of course, living together meant that every night was technically sister night, but they did do other things with their lives, and there’s just something about tradition that makes their Friday nights together feel a little more special.

Kara finally settles on some cheesy romantic comedy, her go-to genre, and snuggles close to Alex with what’s left of her ice cream as the movie starts to play.

They’re thirty minutes in and Alex is contemplating a second beer when a knock at the door interrupts a witty one-liner from the lead character. Kara hits pause.

“Did you order more food?” Alex wonders, thinking of the potstickers Kara normally gets to accompany movie nights.

“Not yet.” Kara sits up and X-rays the door to see their mystery guest. The grin that overtakes her face makes Alex a little nervous, and it’s not assuaged at all when Kara turns that grin on her and says, “You should get it.”

Alex narrows her eyes. “Why?”

“No reason,” Kara replies, her tone about as convincing as any lie she has ever told, which is to say not at all.

“Uh huh,” Alex says skeptically, but gets up anyway and moves to the door, tossing her empty bottle in the bin on the way.

In hindsight, she probably should have at least checked the peephole before she opened the door. Maybe then she could’ve reacted with something a little more dignified than a gaping mouth and widened eyes at the sight of their new neighbor on the other side, wearing tight jeans and a soft grey V-neck paired with a leather jacket, and wow, Alex didn’t know that was a weakness of hers until this moment.

Thankfully, she manages to compose herself within an acceptable amount of time, and tries to ignore Kara’s snickering behind her. Their neighbor doesn’t seem to have noticed Alex’s faux pas, or maybe she’s too nice to say anything. Alex hopes for the former.

Feeling inordinately flustered and silently cursing Kara for making her answer the door, she just barely manages not to stutter out a greeting. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“Hey,” the woman says, and grins, and oh god, there are those dimples. Alex clutches the doorknob tighter. “I’m Maggie. I moved in about a week ago.” She jerks a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of her own apartment, and Alex nods, not trusting her voice.

“Hi, Maggie! I’m Kara Danvers. And this is my sister Alex.”

It takes every ounce of willpower for Alex not to jump out of her skin at the sound of Kara’s voice suddenly right behind her. What is wrong with her? She really should not be this nervous around a woman she’s only just met, for god’s sake. Alex clears her throat and gives another useless nod.

“Sisters?” says Maggie, sounding almost surprised. “Huh. Some guy on the elevator said he thought you guys were a couple.”

Alex and Kara’s faces screw up in simultaneous looks of disgust, and Alex is almost positive that Maggie is referring to the sleazy guy two floors down who she and Kara have learned to avoid like the plague.

“Yeah, no,” Alex says dryly, finding coherency again at last. “Ignore him.”

Maggie chuckles, those dimples making a reappearance, and the words fly right back out of Alex’s brain. She’s certain she imagines the onceover Maggie gives her. “Well, anyway, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was hoping to borrow a tool set, if you have one? I think mine got lost in the move and I have a leaky faucet that needs fixing.”

The thought of Maggie doing handiwork does equally terrible and wonderful things to Alex, and she can practically _feel_ Kara’s teasing gaze boring into the back of her head like heat vision. “Um,” she begins eloquently, “Yeah, sure. Let me grab it.”

Alex spins around and walks around the corner into the kitchen, just out of view. She hears Kara say something to Maggie before scurrying after her.

“Alex!” Kara whisper-yells when they’re far enough away to be out of human earshot. “What are you doing? We don’t _have_ a tool set!”

“I _know_.” Alex turns to her, eyes wide. “You have to go buy one.”

Kara looks at her like she’s lost her mind, which is probably a fair assessment. “Excuse me?”

Alex grabs her wallet off the counter and shoves it at Kara. “Super speed to the hardware store and buy a tool set,” she says with surprisingly more composure than she’s actually feeling.

“Seriously?” Kara sputters.

“Kara, please.” This is probably the stupidest decision Alex has ever made but she can’t exactly go back out there empty handed. What would she say? ‘Hey, Maggie, sorry I lied about having a tool set but my attraction to you temporarily prevented every neuron in my brain from firing’? No.

Instead, she’s asking her sister to use her alien superpowers to save her from embarrassment. As far as terrible choices go, this just about takes the cake, but logic is still glaringly absent from Alex’s mind. It’s reactions like these that make her question how she’d ever believed she was straight.

Lips pursed, Kara nods her acquiescence and tucks the wallet into her pocket. “Fine. But you so owe me for this. And I’m gonna tease you about it forever.”

“I have no doubt,” Alex groans, closing her eyes against the mortification burning inside her. A gust of air and the distant creak of their balcony door tell her Kara has left. She waits a second more before opening her eyes, then starts to pace the small kitchen

Kara returns a few agonizingly long minutes later with a basic tool set and windswept hair. Alex takes the set from her and tears away any evidence that it had just been purchased before hurrying back out to the front door where Maggie is, to her relief, still patiently waiting.

“Hey, sorry. Had some trouble finding it,” Alex tells her breathlessly, hoping she doesn’t sound as ridiculous as she feels.

Maggie smiles, hand brushing against Alex’s as she reaches for the handle. Alex nearly bites through her tongue. “No problem.” She raises the kit a little once she pulls back and gives Alex a nod. “Thanks for this. I’ll return it as soon as I can.”

“Sure. Yeah. No problem,” Alex replies. She just knows Kara is laughing at her from the kitchen.

As Alex slowly shuts the door, Maggie looks back over her shoulder and gives a single wave with her free hand. “See you around, Danvers.”

The moment the door clicks shut, Alex sighs.

“Crap.”

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this before Alex had her gay awakening in 2x05 so we’re going to assume she has already gone through that in this universe, although still fairly recently because she’s still a huge dork. I will also continue to update my Kara/Lucy fic collection (eventually) if any of you read that, but for now this ship has taken over my soul. And maybe Kara/Lena has, too. I'm a mess.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
